From the Chair: Sherry Duffy Greetings UofL Community,
It is a pleasure to bring you news from the Commission on the Status of Women (COSW). This newsletter will highlight many of our
initiatives and outline several upcoming events. During the fall 2018 semester, COSW members served on several UofL search committees, presented the Staff Salary Analysis to multiple campus groups, and continued moving the university lactation policy forward. In November, we
sponsored the Women’s Empowerment Luncheon and awarded Dr. Nancy Theriot, a former COSW Commissioner, the 2018 Tachau Gender commissioner Equity Award!
Spring 2019 started with an abundance of energy for the University of Louisville! One initiative that COSW was deeply committed to helping move forward was the UofL Strategic Plan. President Bendapudi, Dr. Gail Depuy, and Dr. Jeff Bumpous , co-chairs kicked off the UofL strategic planning process, January 2019. COSW is proud to have representation on all three-work committees, helping to fulfill our vision: the University of Louisville offers institutional support so that each woman can achieve her
goals. Diverse women are at every table, at every level, influencing every endeavor undertaken at the University of Louisville.
Please enjoy the COSW newsletter, learn about our work and consider joining our ranks. We are in the process of collecting nominations for future commissioners! COSW commissioners are nominated on an annual basis and the nominations are forwarded to the President for selection. More information on COSW can be found on our website: louisville.edu/cosw.
Sincerely,Sherry Duffy Chair, Commission on the Status of Women
Summer 2019
COSW Open HouseThe Commission on the Status of Women held its third annual Open House at the Clinical Research Translational Building on Friday, March 29, from 2-3:30pm. Commissioners attended and talked with guests, attending to learn more about COSW and its work at UofL. With a chocolate fondue fountain and desserts, and a UofL jazz band providing a relaxed, casual atmosphere, women from both the Health Sciences Campus and Belknap campus had great conversations and were able to identify ways to volunteer or apply to be a commissioner. We are looking forward to continuing this annual event, and hope to reach even more UofL women and women’s allies next year!
More photos on page 2.
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COSW OPEN HOUSE
2019
Pathways Women’s Leadership ConferenceBy: Alicia Kelso
The seventh annual Pathways Women’s Leadership Conference — held Friday, May 17 at the SAC — generated a record crowd of 277 women and their allies from across campus.
The keynote speaker for the event was Valerie Young, who wrote “The Secret Thoughts of Successful Women” and who is a nationally renowned expert on imposter syndrome. She said imposter syndrome affects about 70% of all people and is especially high in academia.
“Fundamentally, what we’re talking about is confidence,” she said. “We have these feelings despite our accomplishments. We explain away our success, whether it’s through luck, timing, connections, personality, diversity hire, or something else. Being found out is our biggest fear.”
There are a number of factors behind why so many people feel like frauds — situational, organizational, culture, etc. Her mission is to normalize imposter
syndrome and provide people with the right tools to overcome it.
Men and women tend to approach imposter syndrome differently, Young said. More women tend to lack confidence and have a harder time resonating with the word
“successful.” They’re also more likely to underestimate themselves and internalize their failures.
Conversely, men may feel pressured to be internally confident, even when they don’t feel it. They’re also more likely to externalize failure, deflecting blame.
To illustrate the difference between men and women, a study by Hewlett-Packard found that for job postings that included 10 criteria — men, on average, would apply if they had six out
of 10. Women would not apply unless they had all 10.
“Success is complicated. We’re all successful, everyone in this room,” she said. “We just have to define what that means.”
Young said there are five types of imposters:1. The perfectionist, where 99 times
out of 100 they will feel like a failure2. The expert, who feels that they
never really know the answer3. The genius, who feels an erosion
of confidence if they don’t grasp something quickly and easily
4. The soloist, who feels that needing help evokes shame
5. The super woman, who expects to excel at everything
To unlearn these behaviors, Young said it’s important to talk about imposterism, and to normalize it.
“The only way to stop feeling like an imposter is to stop thinking like an imposter,” she said. “Reframe it, the way a non-imposter does. That means
“It is so important to have leadership that
reflects who we serve.”President, Neeli Bendapudi
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reframing failures and mistakes. You can be disappointed if you fail, but you shouldn’t be ashamed if you did your best. Non-imposters seek out criticism. They don’t personalize it.”
It’s also important to reframe what it means to be competent, she adds.
“Non-imposters know they can’t be perfect at everything,” Young said.
“What’s important is to know the more you do anything, the better you’ll get at it over time. And, regardless of how confident you feel, you have to keep going. Everyone loses when bright people play small.”
President Neeli Bendapudi also addressed the crowd, acknowledging the importance of diversity, especially in academia.
“It is so important to have leadership that reflects who we serve,” she said.
Bendapudi also touched on the glass cliff theory, in which women tend to be appointed to leadership roles when
“things are going really, really bad.”
This means the likelihood of failure is also greater.
Bendapudi closed with two pieces of advice:} “As a manager, you need to be super
explicit about what you want. Don’t assume people know.”
} “When you have a really busy day, wear comfortable shoes!”
Allison Ball, Kentucky State Treasurer, provided a discussion about financial empowerment, noting that this is an area where women’s leadership can make a major difference.
The program was sponsored by Commonwealth Credit Union, and Karen Harbin, CCU’s president and CEO, opened things up with a brief overview of her 33-year career. She was followed by Provost Beth Boehm, who offered advice to the crowd.
“Sometimes people ask how I got here. It took me 32 years. It was not a meteoric rise,” Boehm said. “I was always the one who rolled up my
sleeves and did the work. There is no magic wand that makes your vision a reality. It takes hard work.”
Boehm added that it’s ok to say “no” every now and then, however.
“There are three reasons I give my time to serve – if I felt like I could contribute; if I felt like I could learn something; and if I had the time,” she said. “There are talkers and there are doers. Be a doer.”
Karan Chavis, chief of staff at the School of Medicine, threw out some statistics for the group to underscore the importance of having events such as the Pathways Leadership Conference. Those stats include:} 5% of the Top 500 S&P CEOs are
women} 8% of congressional seats are held
by women} In 2018, women’s average salaries
were 85 cents to men’s dollar} In Kentucky, women will achieve
pay equity in 2069
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COSW Committee Spotlight:Representation, Recruitment & Retention Committee
A large part of the work of the COSW is conducted through committees. COSW currently has four committees: Communications; Representation, Recruitment, and Retention; Integration of Work and Family, and Campus Climate. As a continuing series in the newsletter, we’d like to highlight some of the work being conducted within the committees. First up: The Committee on Representation, Recruitment, and Retention.
The Committee on Representation, Recruitment and Retention (RRR) promotes gender balance in all employee categories and support programs in career development and mentoring for women. The committee assists in the implementation of the recommendations of the 1994 Task Force regarding the hiring of women, the promotion of women to administrative/managerial positions and the mentoring of women in preparation for more senior positions. This year, the RRR Committee has been working on several key projects related to these aims.
The Committee awarded one-time Akers Research Awards to two graduate students research women’s issues in the global south. Additionally, the committee awarded the Tachau Award to recognize an individual whose work has promoted women’s equality and gender equity to Dr. Nancy Theriot, a faculty member in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies.
The RRR Committee also facilitated a negotiation workshop for the COSW general membership, represented COSW on the Strategic Planning Great Place to Work committee, and has been working on the Cohort Report, a COSW report on gender representation at UofL, produced every two years.
Finally, one of the projects that has had a significant impact, a campus-wide Staff Salary Analysis was conducted by the committee, who then made formal recommendations to the President’s Office to redress gender and intersectional inequities, as well as presenting the information to many other key groups on campus, including university strategic planning groups.
Current COSW Committee Members include:Kristen Lucas (Chair),
College of Business
Delaina Amos Chemical Engineering Department
Carcyle Barrett Office of VP for Strategy/General Counsel
Barbara Bishop College of Education & Human Development
Megan Campbell Office of Facilities Planning and Management, HSC
Dawn Heinecken (non-voting) Women & Gender Studies Department
Zhihui Sun Civil & Environmental Engineering Department
Valerie Casey, (ex-officio), Women’s Center
Bob Goldstein (ex-officio), Vice Provost for Institutional Research, Effectiveness & Analytics
Mordean Taylor-Archer (ex-officio), Vice Provost for Diversity & International Affairs
Save the DateMay 15, 2020
WOMEN’S LEADERSHIP CONFERENCEPATHWAYS 8TH ANNUAL
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Lilialyce Akers Research Award for the Study of Women & Global Issues:
2018-2019 WinnersIn November 2018, The Women’s Center hosted its annual Women’s Empowerment Luncheon. One of the awards presented at the luncheon was the Lilialyce Akers Research Award. This one time award was given to two research graduate students who
are focusing on women’s issues in the global south.
Jerika Jones, MA StudentWomen & Gender Studies Department
Gaining A Global Perspective on Black Feminist Aesthetics: Aestheticizing Ideas of Black
Femmedom in Afro-Argentine and African American Underground Rock Music
AbstractMusic is one of the most powerful tools of resistance that Black femmes have used to fight systemic oppression throughout the African Diaspora. Music reveals many shared oppressions, ideas of community, intersecting identities, and ancestral closeness between Diasporic peoples. I explore the ideologies of Afro-Argentine and African American Femme musicians by performing ethnomusicological analysis on oral histories narrated by these communities to demonstrate their aesthetic and experiential similarities. I reveal that Afro-Argentine and African American musicians use underground rock music as a shared platform to express ideas of their respective antagonistic existences as Black Femmes and use rock music as a form of resistance to dominate political powers. Ultimately, the shared experiences of African American and Afro-Argentines Femmes participating in underground rock music renders a concept of Black Femme existence that is phenomenologically and aesthetically comparable.
Laura Egan Krasuer, MS StudentGeography & Geosciences Department
Agricultural Transformation in Vietnam: Livelihoods, Demography, and Dragon Fruit Cultivation
AbstractShifts toward agricultural modernization have impacted modes of income, land ownership, and livelihood in Southeast Asia drastically in recent years. Transforming both the social and physical landscapes, these changes alter traditional food production, family structures, and the socioeconomic environments in Vietnam, in which women represent over half the agricultural labor. I will combine remote sensing expertise and demographic investigations to examine and characterize changing landscapes associated with dragon fruit cultivation by collecting data on agricultural labor divisions and plantation structure in the Bình Thuân Province of Vietnam. Through elevating the demographic story of female agriculturalists, and recognizing labor and knowledge production of women in Vietnam, I will document their experiences and contributions in the context of agricultural transition. Integrating the human and environmental components of local and regional-scale agricultural shifts that have global impacts can inform greater policy transference for Southeast Asia and beyond.
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Commission on the Status of WomenAdministrative Annex, Suite 201 University of Louisville Louisville, Kentucky 40292
Phone: (502) 852-2029Fax: (502) 852-2154louisville.edu/cosw
The University of Louisville is an equal opportunity institution and does not discriminate against persons on the basis of race, age, religion, sex, disability, color, sexual orientation, national origin or veteran status. 20109 — 7/2019
COSW SPONSORSHIPS AND AWARDS
During the academic year 2018-2019, the Commission on the Status of Women spent $8,800.00 in awards and sponsorships across the University and community. At the time of this newsletter, COSW has received 9 leadership sponsorship applications. Below are some of the awards and sponsorships that were offered. For more information on how to receive a COSW sponsorship, please visit: http://louisville.edu/cosw/resources-information/cosw-sponsorship-application-form/
Person/ Entity Program Amount
Awarded
10 AttendeesIntegrating Women Leaders: Power Upwww.iwlfoundation.org/powerup
$500.00
Women’s Center
Tachau Awardlouisville.edu/womenscenter/resources/uofl-women-center-awards-and-scholarships/past-tachau-award-recipients
$500.00
10 AttendeesWomen’s Empowerment Luncheonlouisville.edu/womenscenter/our-programs/womens-empowerment-luncheon
$600.00
Women’s Center
Women’s Book Festivallouisville.edu/womenscenter/our-programs/kwbf
$500.00
Women’s Center
UofL Women’s Networklouisville.edu/womenscenter/get-involved/join-the-uofl-womens-network
$200.00
10 AttendeesIntegrating Women Leaders: 2019 Conferencewww.iwlfoundation.org/2019-louisville
$3,500.00
Pathways Conference Planning Committee
Pathways Women’s Leadership Conference events.louisville.edu/event/pathways_womens_leadership_conference_319#.XKyxjphKiM9
$3,000.00
Total $8,800.00
